Time Marches On

There is a poll up at GameStooge for the "first FPS (first-person shooter) that you loved".  They had options ranging all the way from Wolfenstein 3D to the Halo franchise.  Made me think back a bit and come to a conclusion: no matter when I feel that I am "done" with shooters and have found a "good enough" game to end all games, there is another game around the corner worthy of my devotion!  Walk through my FPS history with me, if you wish...

Wolfenstein 3D - I used to load this bad boy up on a 486 with 8MB or RAM in the basement computer lab at school!  Killing Nazis and looking for hidden wall panels.  Good times.

Doom - Ditto above (playing it at school).  This was the first game that I thought was even remotely gory.  I soon got over my hesitations and continued killing demons and looking for hidden wall panels.  Even better times.

Quake/Unreal/Half-Life - I played all these PC games, but they never made a huge impression on me.  I certainly never played multiplayer online with any of their variants.  Star Wars: Dark Forces and Jedi Knight fall in here as well.  OK times.

Goldeneye - Wow, this game seemed so cool at the time.  Now it is nearly unplayable.  The right gun and you were unstoppable.  Many 4-player fragfests in college and just after graduation with this classic.  Awesome times.

Perfect Dark (N64) - The next step up.  I played the heck out of this cartridge with the bots and various meat shields that I would invite over.  Much more complex than Goldeneye and "multiplayer" was possible with bots.  Extremely awesome times.

You see where I am going with this, right?  At one time, Perfect Dark fulfilled all my FPS needs.  I thought I would never progress any further.  I thought games had basically reached their full potential.  Enter Halo.

Halo - Wow.  Like my N64 before it, I didn't buy my XBox myself.  It was a gift.  An awesome one.  When I figured out how to run xbconnect on my spare computer, I re-arranged my whole basement to set up my multiplayer gaming habit.  The cost of broadband (stil steep at the time) was justified.  Euphoric times.

Halo 2 - OK.  The pinnacle.  The top.  Online XBox Live multiplayer.  Working from home.  Taking 3, 4, or 5 hour Halo 2 breaks in between "work sessions".  Watching my rank like a hawk.  Living and dying by the frag grenade and BR.  Creating custom games.  10-hour marathon sessions.  Addictive times.

Halo 3 - I sprung for a 360 to play Chromehounds, Call of Duty 2, and XBLA titles.  I was ready for Halo 3.  Everything that Halo 2 lacked, this title has.  Cheating fixed.  Forge options.  How could a FPS get any better than this?

Call of Duty 4 - Don't get me wrong.  I don't think COD4 is better than H3.  It's not as customizable.  It's not as much fun.  But it's probably even more addictive.  And it combined with Halo 3 make me think once again that I am at the pinnacle and that I never have to buy another FPS again.

But history tells me I am wrong.  There is a COD5 coming out.  Halo 3:Recon will closely follow.  And I know MS and IW and Bungie and who knows, maybe even Rare will keep cranking out FPSs.  As much as I'd like to just stop at one game, get really good at it and be happy playing it alone forever - that's just not reasonable to expect.  Bring on Halo 4, Call of Duty 6, Perfect Dark 33 1/3, whatever.  Just keep making them better and better and I'll keep revising my definition of the "pinnacle".